Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a fire control sight for a hand-held firearm, a hand-held firearm with such a fire control sight, as well as a method for orienting such a hand-held firearm.
European patent document EP 0 785 406 A2 discloses a grenade launcher that can be mounted on a hand-held firearm is provided with a laser range finder and a digital compass device. The laser range finder is provided with a LED display device by means of which the grenadier can engage the target. With this known device the grenadier is completely dependent on the electronic target engagement device. In the event of a potentially malfunction of the electronic system any redundant target engagement possibility is lacking.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,499,382 B1 discloses an electronic sighting device as target system for a heavy weapon that is fastened so that it can be pivoted and inclined on a stand or another base. This target system is connected to the weapon in such a way that the target system can rotate with the weapon in azimuthal direction and can pivot in the elevation direction. The target system has a camera and a display screen by means of which the grenadier can engage the target. This known device is too large and too heavy for use on a hand-held firearm.
US patent document US 2005/0268521 A1 discloses an electronic sighting device for a firearm equipped with an inclination sensor, an accelerometer and a rate gyro. This sighting device is also large and heavy and less suitable for a hand-held firearm. Moreover, in the event of malfunction of this electronic sighting device no redundancy is available.
Conventional sighting displays frequently use a marking of the holding point inserted into the optical beam path, which has the disadvantage that the aperture angle of the sighting optics must cover the maximum angle of elevation. For distant targets, however, this angle quickly exceeds the conventional sighting aperture angle, since elevations of up to 45° occur. Particularly with these high elevations a distant target (for example 450 meters away) is attacked, a magnifying sight with a small aperture angle would be required for the measurement.
A further generally known solution for the aforementioned target antagonism is the “tilting” of the beam path by means of a motor-powered mirror or a prism inside the sighting optics. Thus there is contradiction between large viewing angles and sufficient magnification. However, such systems have a relatively large inertia of the entire sighting system, which is caused by the motor powered pivoting of the mirror. Moreover, the field of view of the shooter is restricted to the limited aperture angle of the sight.
In the case of all these known electronic sighting devices the shooter must also carry as a fallback solution a conventional control sight, so that in the event of malfunction of the electronic sighting device he can still use the weapon.
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are directed to a fire control sight, which through intuitive representations enables a quick and exact elevation control for the shooter without the need for a substantially increased weight on a firearm. Moreover, the fire control sight should have redundancy capability if the electronic auxiliary displays fail. Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are also directed to a hand-held firearm with such a fire control sight as well as a method for orienting such a hand-held firearm.